The Alphas And The Orphan

Friday 20th January

Ace’s POV

Alpha Liam is quiet as we exit the building, which I am glad of, as it gives me time to reflect on what he has told us so far. His story does correlate with the story mum and dad had been told.

“Do you mind if I grab some things from my car? I have photos of Thalia and I.” I nod at him and follow to his car. “I can’t believe how much Star looks like her. When Star walked in, I thought I was staring at her. She is stronger than her mum, though, more confident.”

I give him a look that says to hurry the f**k up, “Star is our number one priority here, so shall we go and you can finish your story? She has had a long day and we have plans for the weekend.”

He slams the car door and stomps to the pack house. Maybe I could have been a little less testy, but what does he f*****g expect? We make our way back to mum and dad’s suite. Mum has put out fresh coffee and cookies.

I walk over and lift Star out of her seat and sit in her place, pulling her into my lap while nuzzling her neck. She grins at me and k****s my cheek.

She looks at Liam and motions for him to continue.

“Ok, so we took Thalia back to our allied pack, and when she woke the next morning, she was adamant that we needed to go back to her pack, Alpha Hellios told her that the pack had been locked down, that by the time they heard the alarms and got there it was too late,”

“She was beside herself with grief. I pleaded with her to come home with me, told her that her father knew she was my mate and that I would give my life to protect her. She kept fighting, and I was scared she would hurt herself, so we drugged her and brought her home.”

Star growls low in her chest, and I tightened my arms around her. I may not agree with him drugging her, but if Star had been in the same boat, then I would have done anything to keep her safe.

Liam stared at Star. “I know that it was not my brightest hour, but I had promised her father I would protect her, and she was my mate. I would have done anything to keep her safe. We didn’t know if any of her people had escaped, but I needed to get her away from there.”

“Her father had said that whoever attacked them was after Thalia, that she was special, so we ran. Once we got home to Scotland, we brought her out of her comatose state. My parents tried to calm her and for a while I thought it had worked.”

“We spent time together, building our relationship, and by the time her birthday came round and she felt the pull, I knew I loved her with everything I had.”

“She completed her first shift, and I discovered her powers. Now I knew why they were after her and vowed to protect her always. We completed the mating bond the night of her birthday. It was the happiest day of my life.”

“A week later, one of our doctors contacted me. He said that Thalia had been to see him, that she was confused, had started to lose time, she had also started to lose control of her abilities.”

“She had been having nightmares since leaving her pack, and her mood swings could be terrible. One night, I woke up to a fire in our bedroom. She was standing at the foot of the bed, laughing at me. Her eyes were silver.”

I look at my brothers. So her wolf was in control, not Thalia.

“I jumped out of bed and dragged her outside, yelling at her, suddenly her eyes closed and when she opened them again, she was herself again. She was so confused, kept asking why we were outside.”

“She asked for the doctor to inhibit her wolf, she said that her wolf hated us all, she was so scared she was losing her mind, the doctors were afraid to give her wolfsbane, in case it left permanent damage, so we looked for help in a local witches coven.”

He stopped, tears running down his face. His Beta grabbed his shoulder and looked at Star. “I think he needs a minute. Can I take him to another room so he can compose himself, please?”

Star nodded, and the two men got up and went into the dining room. The two other men watched them go. The sadness in their eyes spoke volumes. One of them sat forward. He picked up the folder that Liam had gotten from his car.

“this contains photos of our Alpha and Luna in their happy times together, there is also her medical records, from both our doctors and healers in the different covens that we went to. He wants you to have them.”

Star took the folder and placed it on the coffee table, then she got up and walked into the dining room. She was gone for a few minutes, but when she returned, she was holding Liam’s hand. He seemed calm and ready to continue.

Lex chuckled next to me, and Liam looked at him, “sorry dude, Star just hit you with her calming juju. It’s her specialty. She has hit us all with it at least once.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Star giggled and poked her tongue out at Lex, “at least once a day with you troublemaker, most of my ‘juju’ is spent on you middle child.”

Mum burst into laughter. It was the first noise she had made for hours. And that is all it takes for the atmosphere in the room to change. Star looks at her father, “do you feel up to continuing? Or do you want to stop for now?”

He smiles at her, “we are almost done, so let’s get it all out shall we?” Star came back to our couch and Lexi grabbed her, sitting her between his knees and tickling her ribs lightly.

More coffee was brought out. Goddess, none of us were going to sleep tonight at this rate.

“Right, where were we, we took Thalia to our local coven, and the healers spent time with her, they said that Thalias mind was caught between her nightmares and reality, and because of that her wolf had gone into protection mode, between them they believed that I had kidnapped her, and killed her family.”

“When she was lucid, she knew that was not true, but her moments of lucidity were becoming shorter and shorter. The healers gave her a potion that would suppress her wolf, but it was only a temporary solution.”

“We were sent from coven to coven all over the country, we were heading for a coven in Cornwall when we discovered Thalia was pregnant, then everything got crazy, she stopped taking the potion, even though the witches said it was safe to take.”

He takes a deep breath. “her mind fractured, she was like a completely different person, she raged that we were going to take her baby. The witches sedated her, but she must have been too powerful. She escaped from the coven, and I spent the next few months searching for her. I was here when I felt her die.”

Tears are streaming down his face now. Star rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck, and he buried his face in her neck.